This chapter examines particular novels of the Roman Empire and their engagement with antiquity—which often takes the form of a polemical appropriation. It asks how Jews fit into this normative ...
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This chapter examines particular novels of the Roman Empire and their engagement with antiquity—which often takes the form of a polemical appropriation. It asks how Jews fit into this normative world, how sexual identity is an issue, whether a negotiation can be found between the barbarism of early Britain in Roman eyes and myths of origin, and how complex a picture of conversion, of the spread of Christianity, of the attractions of the pagan world can be developed. The chapter first considers Edward Bulwer Lytton's novel The Last Days of Pompeii, which set in place many of the narrative and ideological structures that were to become the commonplaces of the fiction of the Roman Empire. It then discusses how the representation of Christians and Christianity in the novels of empire changes over the seventy years after Lytton's aggressive Olinthus died, unmartyred, at Pompeii, a post-Gibbonian narrative victim.Less

Virgins, Lions, and Honest Pluck

Simon Goldhill

Published in print: 2011-08-07

This chapter examines particular novels of the Roman Empire and their engagement with antiquity—which often takes the form of a polemical appropriation. It asks how Jews fit into this normative world, how sexual identity is an issue, whether a negotiation can be found between the barbarism of early Britain in Roman eyes and myths of origin, and how complex a picture of conversion, of the spread of Christianity, of the attractions of the pagan world can be developed. The chapter first considers Edward Bulwer Lytton's novel The Last Days of Pompeii, which set in place many of the narrative and ideological structures that were to become the commonplaces of the fiction of the Roman Empire. It then discusses how the representation of Christians and Christianity in the novels of empire changes over the seventy years after Lytton's aggressive Olinthus died, unmartyred, at Pompeii, a post-Gibbonian narrative victim.

Turks, Northerners, and the Barbarous Heretic focuses on the connections forged in Catholic texts between Protestant heretics and Turkish infidels — an analogy that reversed Protestant accusations ...
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Turks, Northerners, and the Barbarous Heretic focuses on the connections forged in Catholic texts between Protestant heretics and Turkish infidels — an analogy that reversed Protestant accusations and that demonstrated how so-called reformers were not just un-English but the quintessential enemies of the Church. Catholic polemic about Protestants-as-Turks was complexly related to other tropes of heresy and barbarism, particularly to geohumoral discourses that identified the north as the seat of heresy. Through the polemical linkages of Turk, northerner, and heretic, Catholic writers were able to explore fundamental questions about religious persecution and toleration, as well as about what it meant to be civilized and English.Less

Turks, Northerners, and the Barbarous Heretic

Christopher Highley

Published in print: 2008-07-10

Turks, Northerners, and the Barbarous Heretic focuses on the connections forged in Catholic texts between Protestant heretics and Turkish infidels — an analogy that reversed Protestant accusations and that demonstrated how so-called reformers were not just un-English but the quintessential enemies of the Church. Catholic polemic about Protestants-as-Turks was complexly related to other tropes of heresy and barbarism, particularly to geohumoral discourses that identified the north as the seat of heresy. Through the polemical linkages of Turk, northerner, and heretic, Catholic writers were able to explore fundamental questions about religious persecution and toleration, as well as about what it meant to be civilized and English.

Barbarism is a disruptive element within the self, one that disappropriates one's own language and culture in a potentially uncomfortable, even painful, manner. However, the concept of barbarism also ...
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Barbarism is a disruptive element within the self, one that disappropriates one's own language and culture in a potentially uncomfortable, even painful, manner. However, the concept of barbarism also offers a promise for discovering new ways of relating to one's home and cultural “belongings” in ways that are more inclusive, less focused on ownership and authority and more on acts of hospitality. Although the strategies, operations, and analyses considered in this book certainly do not give clear-cut solutions or put an end to the violence against others in the name of civilization, liberalism, religious fundamentalism, or other interests and ideologies, the gap between theory and practice, words and acts, symbolic and physical violence is not as wide as one might think. Small shifts in the ways “barbarism” and the “barbarian” are conceived and used in language or in visual representations could positively alter the ways others are labeled and treated as barbarians in domestic and international politics and in everyday life.Less

Afterword

Published in print: 2013-01-30

Barbarism is a disruptive element within the self, one that disappropriates one's own language and culture in a potentially uncomfortable, even painful, manner. However, the concept of barbarism also offers a promise for discovering new ways of relating to one's home and cultural “belongings” in ways that are more inclusive, less focused on ownership and authority and more on acts of hospitality. Although the strategies, operations, and analyses considered in this book certainly do not give clear-cut solutions or put an end to the violence against others in the name of civilization, liberalism, religious fundamentalism, or other interests and ideologies, the gap between theory and practice, words and acts, symbolic and physical violence is not as wide as one might think. Small shifts in the ways “barbarism” and the “barbarian” are conceived and used in language or in visual representations could positively alter the ways others are labeled and treated as barbarians in domestic and international politics and in everyday life.

This chapter examines the process of the formation of Disraeli's initial understandings of the East and the Eastern Question. The social and political context within which the young Disraeli grew up ...
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This chapter examines the process of the formation of Disraeli's initial understandings of the East and the Eastern Question. The social and political context within which the young Disraeli grew up is scrutinized, as well as the influence of his Jewish origins and the personality of his father, Isaac D'Israeli. The influence of the liberal Toryism of Canning and the romanticism of Lord Byron on the shaping of Disraeli's understanding of the Eastern Question are equally stressed. Finally, the influence of Gibbon's pessimistic view of the 'slavic races' of Eastern Europe as examples of ‘barbarism’ and ‘backwardness’ is also highlighted.Less

Origins

Miloš Ković

Published in print: 2010-11-04

This chapter examines the process of the formation of Disraeli's initial understandings of the East and the Eastern Question. The social and political context within which the young Disraeli grew up is scrutinized, as well as the influence of his Jewish origins and the personality of his father, Isaac D'Israeli. The influence of the liberal Toryism of Canning and the romanticism of Lord Byron on the shaping of Disraeli's understanding of the Eastern Question are equally stressed. Finally, the influence of Gibbon's pessimistic view of the 'slavic races' of Eastern Europe as examples of ‘barbarism’ and ‘backwardness’ is also highlighted.

This chapter shows that, in the Edwardian period, Hobson's thinking on imperial matters was, at worst, schizoid and, at best, puzzling. One strand of his writings was in a direct line of succession ...
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This chapter shows that, in the Edwardian period, Hobson's thinking on imperial matters was, at worst, schizoid and, at best, puzzling. One strand of his writings was in a direct line of succession from Imperialism: A Study. He also printed numerous articles in which he warned of the dangers of parasitism and its consequences. This was accompanied by a stream of writings contradicting some key arguments in Imperialism: A Study. His advocacy of free trade led him into dangerous intellectual territory. In An Economic Interpretation of Investment, Hobson presented imperialism not as a reversion to militancy and barbarism so much as a necessary stage in an economic globalisation that would eventually lead every area of the world, whether advanced or backward, towards liberty and prosperity.Less

Dilemmas of a New Liberal: Free Trade, Foreign Investment, and Imperialism, 1903–1914

P. J. Cain

Published in print: 2002-07-11

This chapter shows that, in the Edwardian period, Hobson's thinking on imperial matters was, at worst, schizoid and, at best, puzzling. One strand of his writings was in a direct line of succession from Imperialism: A Study. He also printed numerous articles in which he warned of the dangers of parasitism and its consequences. This was accompanied by a stream of writings contradicting some key arguments in Imperialism: A Study. His advocacy of free trade led him into dangerous intellectual territory. In An Economic Interpretation of Investment, Hobson presented imperialism not as a reversion to militancy and barbarism so much as a necessary stage in an economic globalisation that would eventually lead every area of the world, whether advanced or backward, towards liberty and prosperity.

Political Science, Comparative Politics, International Relations and Politics

Overseas Chinese communities and national minority groups are an odd place to look for answers to the question “Who is China?” But the chapter explains that these essential outsiders show how the ...
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Overseas Chinese communities and national minority groups are an odd place to look for answers to the question “Who is China?” But the chapter explains that these essential outsiders show how the party‐state works both at the local level and in transnational space to recruit domestic strangers (i.e., national minorities) and foreign brothers (i.e. overseas Chinese) into its national project. The chapter shows how they emerged as political groups just as Chinese nationalism itself was taking shape in the early twentieth century. The Chinese state certainly created these categories as a way to recruit outsiders in the Chinese nation. But chapter shows that outsiders also define the inside: the “barbaric” national minorities define Chinese civilization, while the modern capitalist civilization of overseas Chinese provides the goal for China's development project. Nationalities work and overseas Chinese work thus reinvoke and reinterpret China's enduring civilization – barbarian distinction to construct the Han as the majority race of the Chinese nation.Less

Who Is China? (1): Foreign Brothers and Domestic Strangers

William A. Callahan

Published in print: 2009-11-19

Overseas Chinese communities and national minority groups are an odd place to look for answers to the question “Who is China?” But the chapter explains that these essential outsiders show how the party‐state works both at the local level and in transnational space to recruit domestic strangers (i.e., national minorities) and foreign brothers (i.e. overseas Chinese) into its national project. The chapter shows how they emerged as political groups just as Chinese nationalism itself was taking shape in the early twentieth century. The Chinese state certainly created these categories as a way to recruit outsiders in the Chinese nation. But chapter shows that outsiders also define the inside: the “barbaric” national minorities define Chinese civilization, while the modern capitalist civilization of overseas Chinese provides the goal for China's development project. Nationalities work and overseas Chinese work thus reinvoke and reinterpret China's enduring civilization – barbarian distinction to construct the Han as the majority race of the Chinese nation.

This chapter is concerned with the rise of the vernacular and examines the growing confidence in English as a vehicle for literary expression with reference to such writers as Puttenham, Mulcaster, ...
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This chapter is concerned with the rise of the vernacular and examines the growing confidence in English as a vehicle for literary expression with reference to such writers as Puttenham, Mulcaster, Carew, and Daniel. It extends the theme of moral relativism discussed in the previous chapter into the cultural sphere, and describes the shifting perceptions of classical civility and native English barbarism. It focuses especially on the Renaissance belief in poetry as a central part of the civilizing process, and the importance for the English of developing a native English metre. The chapter looks at the relations between eloquence and barbarity in two plays from the beginning and end of Shakespeare’s career, Titus Andronicus and The Tempest, which reflect the nation’s change in status and anticipate the replacement of Latin by English as the imperial tongue.Less

Vernacular Values

Neil Rhodes

Published in print: 2004-05-20

This chapter is concerned with the rise of the vernacular and examines the growing confidence in English as a vehicle for literary expression with reference to such writers as Puttenham, Mulcaster, Carew, and Daniel. It extends the theme of moral relativism discussed in the previous chapter into the cultural sphere, and describes the shifting perceptions of classical civility and native English barbarism. It focuses especially on the Renaissance belief in poetry as a central part of the civilizing process, and the importance for the English of developing a native English metre. The chapter looks at the relations between eloquence and barbarity in two plays from the beginning and end of Shakespeare’s career, Titus Andronicus and The Tempest, which reflect the nation’s change in status and anticipate the replacement of Latin by English as the imperial tongue.

This chapter assesses how Redonnet's fin de millénaire prose fictions represent market‐driven violence (physical and symbolic) and the mass media (press, television, cinema, and the Internet). It ...
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This chapter assesses how Redonnet's fin de millénaire prose fictions represent market‐driven violence (physical and symbolic) and the mass media (press, television, cinema, and the Internet). It shows how they invite the questions of French co‐implication in atrocities, and, via Adorno, of how bearing witness to the Holocaust risks, as does Redonnet, co‐implication and self‐satisfied contemplation. Benjamin is brought to bear in the analysis of Redonnet's evocation of the critical potential inherent in the production and reproduction of works of art. Discussion of implicit critiques of the contemporary literary field and of écriture féminine lead to the examination of Redonnet's challenges to contemporary conceptions of postmodern barbarism (her description of Houellebecq), women, and women's writing. The chapter concludes by identifying how her narrative strategies of resistance do not achieve their aim of making a travesty of homogenized manipulations of crisis, but are nonetheless a critical work in progress.Less

Ruth Cruickshank

Published in print: 2009-10-01

This chapter assesses how Redonnet's fin de millénaire prose fictions represent market‐driven violence (physical and symbolic) and the mass media (press, television, cinema, and the Internet). It shows how they invite the questions of French co‐implication in atrocities, and, via Adorno, of how bearing witness to the Holocaust risks, as does Redonnet, co‐implication and self‐satisfied contemplation. Benjamin is brought to bear in the analysis of Redonnet's evocation of the critical potential inherent in the production and reproduction of works of art. Discussion of implicit critiques of the contemporary literary field and of écriture féminine lead to the examination of Redonnet's challenges to contemporary conceptions of postmodern barbarism (her description of Houellebecq), women, and women's writing. The chapter concludes by identifying how her narrative strategies of resistance do not achieve their aim of making a travesty of homogenized manipulations of crisis, but are nonetheless a critical work in progress.

The real Frankfurt, the world of commercial success, went into Friedrich Hölderlin's writings as the capital of philistinism, joylessness, and barbaric oppression, and if he later called it ‘the ...
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The real Frankfurt, the world of commercial success, went into Friedrich Hölderlin's writings as the capital of philistinism, joylessness, and barbaric oppression, and if he later called it ‘the navel of the earth’ that was partly on account of its geographical position in Germany but chiefly because Susette Gontard lived and died there. Hölderlin's most characteristic predisposition — to think of the empirical world as hostile to the spirit, to think of the spirit as being almost everywhere beleaguered and oppressed — was massively confirmed in Frankfurt. He had met with oppression and philistinism before, of course, enough to convince him that the things of the spirit would always have to be fought for against nearly overwhelming odds; but still the sheer brutal self-confidence of Frankfurt, its utter negation of the spirit, must have come as a shock. In Frankfurt, he seemed to have met with barbarism at its most compelling.Less

Frankfurt, 1796–1798

David Constantine

Published in print: 1988-06-30

The real Frankfurt, the world of commercial success, went into Friedrich Hölderlin's writings as the capital of philistinism, joylessness, and barbaric oppression, and if he later called it ‘the navel of the earth’ that was partly on account of its geographical position in Germany but chiefly because Susette Gontard lived and died there. Hölderlin's most characteristic predisposition — to think of the empirical world as hostile to the spirit, to think of the spirit as being almost everywhere beleaguered and oppressed — was massively confirmed in Frankfurt. He had met with oppression and philistinism before, of course, enough to convince him that the things of the spirit would always have to be fought for against nearly overwhelming odds; but still the sheer brutal self-confidence of Frankfurt, its utter negation of the spirit, must have come as a shock. In Frankfurt, he seemed to have met with barbarism at its most compelling.

Hubert Lyautey, soon to become one of France's leading colonial actors and propagandists, began in the 1890s to seek the potential for national regeneration among those who served in colonies. ...
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Hubert Lyautey, soon to become one of France's leading colonial actors and propagandists, began in the 1890s to seek the potential for national regeneration among those who served in colonies. Lyautey's eventual status as a colonial hero suggests that colonialism could command widespread interest in France. Morocco was a society at war with itself and with outsiders who sought to bring it peace. Lyautey's reputation as a pacific conqueror, a lithe duelist on the colonial stage, received another boost in December 1908 when the general's forces defeated the Beni Snassen tribal army in its mountainous homeland in northeastern Morocco. If Lyautey could defeat Moroccan barbarism with the promise of a humane, French peace, there was reason for confidence that other French generals—or perhaps Lyautey himself—would overcome German barbarism as well.Less

Hubert Lyautey and the French Seizure of Morocco

Edward Berenson

Published in print: 2010-06-12

Hubert Lyautey, soon to become one of France's leading colonial actors and propagandists, began in the 1890s to seek the potential for national regeneration among those who served in colonies. Lyautey's eventual status as a colonial hero suggests that colonialism could command widespread interest in France. Morocco was a society at war with itself and with outsiders who sought to bring it peace. Lyautey's reputation as a pacific conqueror, a lithe duelist on the colonial stage, received another boost in December 1908 when the general's forces defeated the Beni Snassen tribal army in its mountainous homeland in northeastern Morocco. If Lyautey could defeat Moroccan barbarism with the promise of a humane, French peace, there was reason for confidence that other French generals—or perhaps Lyautey himself—would overcome German barbarism as well.

William A. Callahan

Political Science, Comparative Politics, International Relations and Politics

The rise of China presents a long‐term challenge to the world not only economically, but also politically and culturally. Callahan meets this challenge in China: The Pessoptimist Nation by using new ...
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The rise of China presents a long‐term challenge to the world not only economically, but also politically and culturally. Callahan meets this challenge in China: The Pessoptimist Nation by using new Chinese sources and innovative analysis to see how Chinese people understand their new place in the world. The heart of Chinese foreign policy is not a security dilemma, but an identity dilemma. Chinese identity emerges through the interplay of positive and negative feelings: China thus is the pessoptimist nation. This positive–negative dynamic intertwines China's domestic and international politics as national security is closely linked to nationalist insecurities. To chart the trajectory of its rise, the book shifts from examining China's national interests to exploring its national aesthetic. Rather than answering the standard social science question “What is China?” with statistics of economic and military power, this book asks “When, Where, and Who is China?” to explore the soft power dynamics of China's identity politics. China: The Pessoptimist Nation examines Beijing's propaganda system and its patriotic education policy to see how Chinese identity is formed through a celebration of ancient civilization and a commemoration of humiliation suffered in modern history. It shows how China's relationship with itself and the world takes shape in the pessoptimist dynamics of patriotic education policy and the national humiliation curriculum, national days and national humiliation days, national maps and national humiliation maps, foreign brothers and domestic strangers, and Chinese patriots and foreign devils. Together the chapters demonstrate how the identity politics of Chinese nationalism produce the security politics of Chinese foreign policy. They show how the pessoptimist link between China's dream of civilization and its nightmare of humiliation is not fading away. It provides the template of China's foreign relations that inflames popular feelings for future demonstrations, and primes the indignant youth for explosive protests. Callahan concludes that Chinese identity grows out of a dynamic of reciprocal influence that integrates official policy and popular culture. This interactive view of China's pessoptimist identity means that we need to rethink the role of the state and public opinion in Beijing's foreign policy‐making.Less

China : The Pessoptimist Nation

William A. Callahan

Published in print: 2009-11-19

The rise of China presents a long‐term challenge to the world not only economically, but also politically and culturally. Callahan meets this challenge in China: The Pessoptimist Nation by using new Chinese sources and innovative analysis to see how Chinese people understand their new place in the world. The heart of Chinese foreign policy is not a security dilemma, but an identity dilemma. Chinese identity emerges through the interplay of positive and negative feelings: China thus is the pessoptimist nation. This positive–negative dynamic intertwines China's domestic and international politics as national security is closely linked to nationalist insecurities. To chart the trajectory of its rise, the book shifts from examining China's national interests to exploring its national aesthetic. Rather than answering the standard social science question “What is China?” with statistics of economic and military power, this book asks “When, Where, and Who is China?” to explore the soft power dynamics of China's identity politics. China: The Pessoptimist Nation examines Beijing's propaganda system and its patriotic education policy to see how Chinese identity is formed through a celebration of ancient civilization and a commemoration of humiliation suffered in modern history. It shows how China's relationship with itself and the world takes shape in the pessoptimist dynamics of patriotic education policy and the national humiliation curriculum, national days and national humiliation days, national maps and national humiliation maps, foreign brothers and domestic strangers, and Chinese patriots and foreign devils. Together the chapters demonstrate how the identity politics of Chinese nationalism produce the security politics of Chinese foreign policy. They show how the pessoptimist link between China's dream of civilization and its nightmare of humiliation is not fading away. It provides the template of China's foreign relations that inflames popular feelings for future demonstrations, and primes the indignant youth for explosive protests. Callahan concludes that Chinese identity grows out of a dynamic of reciprocal influence that integrates official policy and popular culture. This interactive view of China's pessoptimist identity means that we need to rethink the role of the state and public opinion in Beijing's foreign policy‐making.

Antony Rowland

Published in print:

2001

Published Online:

June 2013

ISBN:

9780853235064

eISBN:

9781846314254

Item type:

book

Publisher:

Liverpool University Press

DOI:

10.5949/UPO9781846314254

Subject:

Literature, Poetry

This book argues that Tony Harrison's poetry is barbaric. It revisits Theodor Adorno's apparent dismissal of post-Holocaust poetry as ‘impossible’ or ‘barbaric’. His statement is reinterpreted as ...
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This book argues that Tony Harrison's poetry is barbaric. It revisits Theodor Adorno's apparent dismissal of post-Holocaust poetry as ‘impossible’ or ‘barbaric’. His statement is reinterpreted as opening up the possibility that the awkward and embarrassing poetics of writers such as Harrison might be re-evaluated as committed responses to the worst horrors of twentieth-century history. Most of the existing critical work on Harrison focuses on his representation of class, which occludes his interest in other aspects of historiography. The poet's predilection for establishing links between the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the prospect of global annihilation is examined as a commitment to oppose the dangers of linguistic silence. Hence Harrison's work can be read fruitfully within the growing field of Holocaust Studies. Harrison's status as a ‘non-victim’ author of the events is stressed throughout. His writing of the Holocaust, allied bombings and atom bomb is mediated by his reception of the events through newsreels as a child, and his adoption and subversion, as an adult poet, of traditional poetic forms such as the elegy and sonnet.Less

Tony Harrison and The Holocaust

Antony Rowland

Published in print: 2001-06-01

This book argues that Tony Harrison's poetry is barbaric. It revisits Theodor Adorno's apparent dismissal of post-Holocaust poetry as ‘impossible’ or ‘barbaric’. His statement is reinterpreted as opening up the possibility that the awkward and embarrassing poetics of writers such as Harrison might be re-evaluated as committed responses to the worst horrors of twentieth-century history. Most of the existing critical work on Harrison focuses on his representation of class, which occludes his interest in other aspects of historiography. The poet's predilection for establishing links between the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the prospect of global annihilation is examined as a commitment to oppose the dangers of linguistic silence. Hence Harrison's work can be read fruitfully within the growing field of Holocaust Studies. Harrison's status as a ‘non-victim’ author of the events is stressed throughout. His writing of the Holocaust, allied bombings and atom bomb is mediated by his reception of the events through newsreels as a child, and his adoption and subversion, as an adult poet, of traditional poetic forms such as the elegy and sonnet.

This chapter examines the notion of “positive barbarism” by focusing on Walter Benjamin's 1933 essay “Experience and Poverty” and juxtaposes this notion to other uses of “barbarism” in Benjamin's ...
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This chapter examines the notion of “positive barbarism” by focusing on Walter Benjamin's 1933 essay “Experience and Poverty” and juxtaposes this notion to other uses of “barbarism” in Benjamin's writings. In particular, it explores how Benjamin's positive barbarism breaks with the genealogy of barbarism and articulates a new concept without dissociating itself from the destruction and violence traditionally associated with barbarism. It highlights an apparent paradox in the essay: the development of technology has led to an “oppressive wealth of ideas” but also spawned a new poverty of experience at the same time. By focusing on details in the text, the chapter reveals the operations of barbarism not only as a philosophical concept but as a medial performance in general and as a textual performance in particular.Less

A Positive Barbarism?

Published in print: 2013-01-30

This chapter examines the notion of “positive barbarism” by focusing on Walter Benjamin's 1933 essay “Experience and Poverty” and juxtaposes this notion to other uses of “barbarism” in Benjamin's writings. In particular, it explores how Benjamin's positive barbarism breaks with the genealogy of barbarism and articulates a new concept without dissociating itself from the destruction and violence traditionally associated with barbarism. It highlights an apparent paradox in the essay: the development of technology has led to an “oppressive wealth of ideas” but also spawned a new poverty of experience at the same time. By focusing on details in the text, the chapter reveals the operations of barbarism not only as a philosophical concept but as a medial performance in general and as a textual performance in particular.

This chapter examines an artistic visualization of “new barbarians” by focusing on a number of photo-performances belonging to “The New Barbarians” project (2004–2006) by Mexican-born performance ...
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This chapter examines an artistic visualization of “new barbarians” by focusing on a number of photo-performances belonging to “The New Barbarians” project (2004–2006) by Mexican-born performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña and his troupe, La Pocha Nostra. Although Gómez-Peña's constructed barbarian personas appear to materialize the promise of the barbarians' arrival, these materializations falls short of the expectations of the civilized imagination. With their ostensive presence, the barbarians in Gómez-Peña's photo-performances overwhelm the viewer through an overload of cultural references that recast Western stereotypes of barbarian others in new, subversive constellations. Gómez-Peña's project addresses barbarism and the figure of the new barbarian by means of a barbarian aesthetic, taking shape through a visual grammar of “barbarisms.”Less

New Barbarians

Published in print: 2013-01-30

This chapter examines an artistic visualization of “new barbarians” by focusing on a number of photo-performances belonging to “The New Barbarians” project (2004–2006) by Mexican-born performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña and his troupe, La Pocha Nostra. Although Gómez-Peña's constructed barbarian personas appear to materialize the promise of the barbarians' arrival, these materializations falls short of the expectations of the civilized imagination. With their ostensive presence, the barbarians in Gómez-Peña's photo-performances overwhelm the viewer through an overload of cultural references that recast Western stereotypes of barbarian others in new, subversive constellations. Gómez-Peña's project addresses barbarism and the figure of the new barbarian by means of a barbarian aesthetic, taking shape through a visual grammar of “barbarisms.”

This chapter concludes with an argument that in Germany, the popular memory of “Barbarossa” is based on the same inversion of reality which was common during the Third Reich, whereby the war's ...
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This chapter concludes with an argument that in Germany, the popular memory of “Barbarossa” is based on the same inversion of reality which was common during the Third Reich, whereby the war's military events and physical hardships are greatly overemphasized, while its truly unique aspect, namely its inherent criminality, is repressed and “normalized.” Cause and effect were reversed: barbarism was perceived as the outcome of the enemy's bitter resistance to occupation, not as its main trigger. Further, the chapter demonstrates that the central contention of this study is that just as we cannot speak of the Wehrmacht as an institution in isolation from the state, so too it is impossible to understand the conduct, motivation, and self-perception of the individual officers and men who made up the army without considering the society and regime from which they came.Less

Conclusion

Omer Bartov

Published in print: 1994-02-24

This chapter concludes with an argument that in Germany, the popular memory of “Barbarossa” is based on the same inversion of reality which was common during the Third Reich, whereby the war's military events and physical hardships are greatly overemphasized, while its truly unique aspect, namely its inherent criminality, is repressed and “normalized.” Cause and effect were reversed: barbarism was perceived as the outcome of the enemy's bitter resistance to occupation, not as its main trigger. Further, the chapter demonstrates that the central contention of this study is that just as we cannot speak of the Wehrmacht as an institution in isolation from the state, so too it is impossible to understand the conduct, motivation, and self-perception of the individual officers and men who made up the army without considering the society and regime from which they came.

Genocide is approached with the assistance of two concepts: pathological altruism and pathological obedience. The first is marked by the utilization of genocide as an elite policy employed for ...
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Genocide is approached with the assistance of two concepts: pathological altruism and pathological obedience. The first is marked by the utilization of genocide as an elite policy employed for self-interests but disguised as preservation of the group. A necessary requirement of genocide is the “pathological obedience” of a large section of the population, as in the case of the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. This chapter explores the role of self-control as an explanation of crime. Self-control is stable over the life course but it is argued, following Elias’s work on the “civilizing process,” that levels of self-control can vary over time. The collective investment in how individuals are socialized follows changing social memes. Elias argues that genocide is a reversion to barbarism. Alternatively, pathological obedience may arise from oversocialization, particularly in contexts of militarism and totalitarianism. This suggests that Milgram’s “agentic state” is cultural in origin.Less

Genocide : From Pathological Altruism to Pathological Obedience

Augustine Brannigan

Published in print: 2011-12-09

Genocide is approached with the assistance of two concepts: pathological altruism and pathological obedience. The first is marked by the utilization of genocide as an elite policy employed for self-interests but disguised as preservation of the group. A necessary requirement of genocide is the “pathological obedience” of a large section of the population, as in the case of the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. This chapter explores the role of self-control as an explanation of crime. Self-control is stable over the life course but it is argued, following Elias’s work on the “civilizing process,” that levels of self-control can vary over time. The collective investment in how individuals are socialized follows changing social memes. Elias argues that genocide is a reversion to barbarism. Alternatively, pathological obedience may arise from oversocialization, particularly in contexts of militarism and totalitarianism. This suggests that Milgram’s “agentic state” is cultural in origin.

This chapter makes the case for reading Woolf's works—from her first novel to her last, with a special emphasis on her three primary works of the 1930s, The Years, Three Guineas, and Between the ...
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This chapter makes the case for reading Woolf's works—from her first novel to her last, with a special emphasis on her three primary works of the 1930s, The Years, Three Guineas, and Between the Acts—as a great theorist of literary violence. It places Woolf in two primary relations to her contemporary culture with respect to violence: deeply, intimately exploring and formalizing its registers of violence; veering away from her peers and constructing an entirely original set of patterns to accommodate the visceral facts of ubiquitous, mass violence. The first half of the chapter elaborates three major topics in the cultural history of violence in the 1930s: the widespread debate about whether violence is or must be a determining feature of humanity, versus the view that civilization might yet prevail (discussion of Freud, Russell, Leonard Woolf, and V. Woolf); the Spanish Civil War, especially as it was reflected and understood in England (discussion of various writers on the war, as well as visual artists such as Picasso and Capa); the logics of action, as expressed by fascists, and the crisis around pacifism in the 1930s (discussion of Mussolini, British journal Action, and the history and language of British pacifism). The second half offers a reading of a full range of Woolf's writings (The Voyage Out, Jacob's Room, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse) culminating in a detailed account of violence in her final three works.Less

Patterns of Violence : Virginia Woolf in the 1930s

Sarah Cole

Published in print: 2012-11-01

This chapter makes the case for reading Woolf's works—from her first novel to her last, with a special emphasis on her three primary works of the 1930s, The Years, Three Guineas, and Between the Acts—as a great theorist of literary violence. It places Woolf in two primary relations to her contemporary culture with respect to violence: deeply, intimately exploring and formalizing its registers of violence; veering away from her peers and constructing an entirely original set of patterns to accommodate the visceral facts of ubiquitous, mass violence. The first half of the chapter elaborates three major topics in the cultural history of violence in the 1930s: the widespread debate about whether violence is or must be a determining feature of humanity, versus the view that civilization might yet prevail (discussion of Freud, Russell, Leonard Woolf, and V. Woolf); the Spanish Civil War, especially as it was reflected and understood in England (discussion of various writers on the war, as well as visual artists such as Picasso and Capa); the logics of action, as expressed by fascists, and the crisis around pacifism in the 1930s (discussion of Mussolini, British journal Action, and the history and language of British pacifism). The second half offers a reading of a full range of Woolf's writings (The Voyage Out, Jacob's Room, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse) culminating in a detailed account of violence in her final three works.

“Civilization and enlightenment” (bunmei kaika) is a phrase which the historians of Japan used to assign to a cultural era extending from shortly after Meiji Restoration of 1868 until the late 1870s ...
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“Civilization and enlightenment” (bunmei kaika) is a phrase which the historians of Japan used to assign to a cultural era extending from shortly after Meiji Restoration of 1868 until the late 1870s or early 1880s. “Civilization” was represented for such thinkers and their audiences as the ultimate destination on an evolutionary path upward from “barbarism” (yaban), a goal understood as having been achieved most fully at the time by the societies of Europe and North America. With this imaginary axis, Japan's current stage of development lay somewhere in the middle — “half-enlightened” (hankai); the emulation of contemporary Western practices and values thus seemed indispensable in order for Japan swiftly to join the friendship of “civilized” nations.Less

Gregory M. Pflugfelder

Published in print: 2000-08-02

“Civilization and enlightenment” (bunmei kaika) is a phrase which the historians of Japan used to assign to a cultural era extending from shortly after Meiji Restoration of 1868 until the late 1870s or early 1880s. “Civilization” was represented for such thinkers and their audiences as the ultimate destination on an evolutionary path upward from “barbarism” (yaban), a goal understood as having been achieved most fully at the time by the societies of Europe and North America. With this imaginary axis, Japan's current stage of development lay somewhere in the middle — “half-enlightened” (hankai); the emulation of contemporary Western practices and values thus seemed indispensable in order for Japan swiftly to join the friendship of “civilized” nations.

This chapter investigates the association between civilization and barbarism as mediated by customs in the early modern period. After a short introductory discussion of the place of the Ezochi and ...
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This chapter investigates the association between civilization and barbarism as mediated by customs in the early modern period. After a short introductory discussion of the place of the Ezochi and the Ryukyu kingdom as peripheries of the early modern state, it examines the relationship between customs and status in the core polity and the marking of the Ainu alternately as barbarians and as Japanese through the deployment of customs. It tries to show that the geography of civilization was rooted in a spatial understanding of Japan's place in East Asia. The connection between customs and notions of civilization had deep roots in Confucian thought. Matsumae's attitude toward visible symbols of Ainu identity similarly reveals the nature of the civilizational boundary in Hokkaido. The Ainu's perception of both ritual and labor as forms of trade reflects the organic quality of the relationship.Less

The Geography of Civilization

David L. Howell

Published in print: 2005-07-02

This chapter investigates the association between civilization and barbarism as mediated by customs in the early modern period. After a short introductory discussion of the place of the Ezochi and the Ryukyu kingdom as peripheries of the early modern state, it examines the relationship between customs and status in the core polity and the marking of the Ainu alternately as barbarians and as Japanese through the deployment of customs. It tries to show that the geography of civilization was rooted in a spatial understanding of Japan's place in East Asia. The connection between customs and notions of civilization had deep roots in Confucian thought. Matsumae's attitude toward visible symbols of Ainu identity similarly reveals the nature of the civilizational boundary in Hokkaido. The Ainu's perception of both ritual and labor as forms of trade reflects the organic quality of the relationship.

This chapter explores the way Tokugawa notions of civilization and barbarism were translated into a new idiom in the years immediately following the Meiji Restoration. There is a tendency to see ...
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This chapter explores the way Tokugawa notions of civilization and barbarism were translated into a new idiom in the years immediately following the Meiji Restoration. There is a tendency to see civilization and enlightenment discourse as a stark departure from the ideas and institutions of the Tokugawa period. Three critical differences distinguished the early modern (ka versus i) and modern (bunmei versus yaban) conceptions of civilization and barbarism. The introduction of Meiji standards of civilization and enlightenment entailed a synchronous process of expanding the notion of civilization so that it gradually penetrated into the core of everyday life, while linking barbarism to the urban poor and others whose livelihoods were marked as unsettled. The locus of agency was a central feature of the transformation of civilization across the divide of the Meiji Restoration.Less

Civilization and Enlightenment

David L. Howell

Published in print: 2005-07-02

This chapter explores the way Tokugawa notions of civilization and barbarism were translated into a new idiom in the years immediately following the Meiji Restoration. There is a tendency to see civilization and enlightenment discourse as a stark departure from the ideas and institutions of the Tokugawa period. Three critical differences distinguished the early modern (ka versus i) and modern (bunmei versus yaban) conceptions of civilization and barbarism. The introduction of Meiji standards of civilization and enlightenment entailed a synchronous process of expanding the notion of civilization so that it gradually penetrated into the core of everyday life, while linking barbarism to the urban poor and others whose livelihoods were marked as unsettled. The locus of agency was a central feature of the transformation of civilization across the divide of the Meiji Restoration.